Cons:

Although Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are considered classic, amazing side-scrollers by many gamers, there's a small (yet vocal) minority that can't stand them. This is due to the fact that both games rely on the same formula, where players are forced to find items or pickups in order to progress, generally only after backtracking through areas they've already visited. If you're already trembling with rage and clenching your fists after reading the preceding sentences, Chair Entertainment's Shadow Complex might not be the game for you. However, if you're a fan of the Metroidvania games (or have the gaming equivalent of obsessive compulsive disorder, like yours truly), this is a game not to be missed.

Like approximately 83 percent of the games in existence, Shadow Complex tells the tale of an ordinary young man inadvertently thrust into extraordinary circumstances beyond his control. When his new lady-friend is captured by a shadowy organization called the Progressive Restoration, our hero must save her by navigating through the group's massive underground base. The story, told primarily through overheard conversations and the occasional cut-scene, is actually more entertaining (dare I say "thought-provoking"?) than I originally expected, as the Restoration's collective heart is actually in the right place. Alas, that heart needs to be cut out by our everyman-cum-supersoldier hero so he can save his girl and, y'know, the rest of the world.

He accomplishes this task by blasting every Restoration soldier he comes across with an increasingly more powerful arsenal of weapons, starting with a simple pistol and finishing with an uber-shotgun. Make no mistake, this is a shooter through and through, and you won't need to deal with pesky things like ammo pickups or other fun-stopping limitations while you're running and gunning. Targeting your foes is pretty simple, as all you've got to do is point your ubiquitous laser sight at your enemies with the right analog stick and fire away.

While Shadow Complex looks like a 2D side-scroller at first glance, you'll have to deal with some baddies on a third plane behind the one your character is on. Although firing in this direction is essentially automatic (that is, you can just aim in the general direction and the game will auto-target enemies), there will definitely be frustrating moments if you're trying to fine-tune your shot. Still, these occasional annoyances don't really hurt the gunplay overall, especially once you're a few hours in and have mastered the art of targeting while running and jumping.

In addition to whatever your weapon is at any given time (each successive gun replaces the previous one), you'll gradually pick up stuff like grenades and rockets, as well as parts of an experimental supersuit that allows you to double- and triple-jump, breathe underwater, and run faster than the speed of sound. Each item you grab will allow you to access previously unreachable areas, which in turn gives you more items to grab. It's a vicious (and wonderfully addictive) cycle, one not unfamiliar to fans of the aforementioned Metroid and Castlevania titles. Sure, there's a ton of backtracking, but this is one of those titles that rewards players for their extra effort without actually requiring it.

While the combat will be the main focus of the game for players who just want to plow through Shadow Complex (it can be beaten in less than three hours on the first playthrough), those who want to find everything will be switching back and forth between the action and the expansive map, trying to figure out what they need to do to get the question marks that denote items. Solving these environmental "puzzles" can be as simple as blasting open a door with a rocket, or as complex as using high-tech foam to create a ramp in order to build up enough steam to smash through a wall with your super-speed. Figuring out what to do and grabbing the desired power-up or item is extremely satisfying, especially as you get closer and closer to that magical 100 percent mark.

You can crank through Shadow Complex in just a few hours, but the game offers plenty of reason to play it more than once. Finding all of the items will take upwards of 10 hours, and you'll be rewarded for the effort when you start a new game by keeping your experience level and getting near-immediate access to gold variants of each weapon. Leaderboards track everything from fastest campaign time to melee kills and headshots, offering up real-time updates on your standing while you play, keeping the more competitive players constantly engaged. Hell, even after you get through all of that content there are still a series of challenge rooms that can be used to either hone your skills or teach you new ways to use them.

Although Shadow Complex might not be for everyone -- and frankly, we don't want to know those people -- it's a must-play game for anyone who loves the reward-based exploration and side-scrolling action of the side-scrollers of old. While I can't help but hope Chair is hard at work on a sequel, I must admit that I'm already looking forward to play-through number five. Level 50, here I come!

[Editor's Note: We'll add the consensus part of our review tomorrow, once more reviews have been posted.]